Russia targets Chechen refugee camps
Russian troops stand alert and ready to go on the offensive.
Dozens of them are building a new base at the gates of the Slipsovsk refugee
camp.
It is just a small part of Russia's military crackdown along the border and
right across Chechnya after last week's seizing of a Moscow theatre by armed
Chechens and the subsequent deaths of more than 100 of their hostages during
a rescue mission.
Inside the camp, the thousands of refugees whose homes have been destroyed by
years of conflict are apprehensive.
They expect the Russians to enter their tent city soon, carrying out mass arrests
- detaining sons and husbands suspected of supporting the Moscow hostagetakers,
and their demands for an independent Chechnya.
In one tent, I found Suleiman Azanaurov and his family waiting for the inevitable
Russian revenge.
Suleiman has been in the camp for the past three years. His house, and the cafe
he used to run in the Chechen capital, Grozny, were blown up during the Russian
assault on the city.
Aid handouts
Now, home is a tent shared with his wife and six children aged between eight
months and 17 years old.
It is a squalid existence, reliant on handouts of aid and charity.
Suleiman is angry. He dismisses accusations that the Chechens who went to Moscow
are terrorists - as far as he's concerned, they were heroes.
He tells me they were fighting for Chechnya's independence, drawing attention
to a cause the world prefers to ignore.
Suleiman says he has no doubts that they did the right thing, even though more
than 100 of their hostages died during an operation to rescue them:
«These people had no other option. They carried out this extreme act because
we can't stand this war anymore.
«Today, in Chechnya, the whole nation is being exterminated. Even Nazi
Germany didn't act so badly. We have nothing to lose»